Video: Festo's Dragonfly Robot Flies, Hovers & Glides

Festo, inventor of sophisticated and elegant robotic birds, as well as robot jellyfish and penguins, has done it again. The company's latest robotic achievement is a dragonfly, the BionicOpter, which can independently move each of its wings to fly in any direction.

Introduced at the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany this week, the BionicOpter is one of many projects the company has pursued under the aegis of its Bionic Learning Network. The network's purpose is to use the energy-efficient principles already found in nature and adapt them to automation technology.

Modeled after a dragonfly, Festo's latest sophisticated robot is the BionicOpter, which can independently move each of its wings to fly in any direction, as well as hover and glide.
(Source: Festo)

The robotic dragonfly can speed up or slow down quickly, or even fly backwards, because of its ability to independently move each of its four wings. It can also float like a glider while holding its wings steady. Since it doesn't need to generate forward thrust by tilting forward, the BionicOpter can also fly horizontally. It's extremely lightweight at 175 gm (6.17 oz). Its body, made of flexible polyamide and terpolymer, is 44 cm (17.3 inches) long, and houses an ARM microcontroller, eight servo motors for wing actuation, a brushless motor, two 7.6V lithium polymer batteries, 2.4 GHz wireless modules, and inertia, acceleration, and position sensors. The head and body are actuated by four flexible muscles made of nitinol, a shape memory alloy (SMA) that expands when cooled and contracts when heated. An electrical current passing through these "muscles" makes them move the tail up and down and the head from side to side.

Each of the BionicOpter's carbon fiber-framed wings are covered with a thin foil material, and total wingspan is 63 cm (24.8 inches). Direction and intensity of each wing can be individually adjusted: The direction of each wing's thrust is determined by its swiveling motions, and its amplitude controller regulates the intensity of that thrust. Each wing's flapping frequency and twisting motions are also independently controlled, and data on wing position and twisting is recorded and evaluated while the dragonfly is in flight. Remote-controlled with a smartphone, the robot only needs its operator for steering and speed control. Software and electronics coordinate the robot's motions.

Before attempting the complexities of engineering the robot dragonfly, Festo developed its SmartBird, which can take off, and fly and land autonomously, rising by means of its flapping wings alone. Inspired by a herring gull, the robotic bird flies, glides, and sails. A complex flight control system in its torso and tail section, combined with its articulated torsional drive unit, lets SmartBird's wings twist at specific angles, as well as beat up and down to optimize airflow use without the requirement for additional devices to assist lift. The bird's wing position and torsion are monitored by ZigBee-based two-way radio communication, which conveys operating data such as battery charge and power consumption, as well as pilot input.

Although Festo's press release claims that the BionicOpter dragonfly robot is the first system that can perform all the flight maneuvers of a plane, a helicopter, and a glider, two of these abilities have previously been demonstrated in one machine by Japan's Ministry of Defense. The Japanese remote-controlled flying spherical robot can move in any direction, fly down narrow passageways or up and down stairways, and take off and land vertically anywhere, on surfaces of nearly any shape. Like a helicopter, it can hover for eight minutes continuously, but the orb also has wings that let it fly forward horizontally at up to 60 km/hour.

Re applications, I find it interesting that what looks a lot like the flying robots designed for military purposes is instead a robot designed for industrial uses. These may seem like very different applications,. but they share a lot of functions--and thus features and technology--in common.

Ann, I agree with you on the potential cost of these systems which are very well done and with quality components. Some motion control companies target the theme parks and entertainment venues; this kind of technology would seem to fit into those markets (not necessarily the dragonfly) and I wouldn't be surprised if Festo has experience in that area.

Festo was new to me until recently so now I'm seeing exactly what you mean. It's sometimes hard to find designers who can execute on both technical engineering and cutting-edge design. I imagine this is a company to watch, and perhaps even that will set trends for future robotic design.

Festo's robots are developed as, to begin with, proofs-of-concept/prototypes for industrial customers, not consumers. Given the quality of components, and the sophistication of design and engineering, even if this were ever for sale to consumers in quantities of 1, I'd guess the price range would be up there with the Transformer robot we coveredhttp://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=25601which costs $20,000. Or maybe 10x that much.

It's funny, I just talked to Festo about a motor drive product and it occurred to me that it's quite impressive that such technical-minded people could also have come up with something as creative as the dragon-fly robot. There's definitely two sides of the brain at work here.

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